The invention relates to a rail-to-rail amplifier arrangement having a large output swing ranging from substantially the reference potential to substantially the supply voltage.
Particularly with amplifier arrangements of this kind having a large output swing the problem arises that a part of the output current is drained to the reference potential, i.e. a substantial part of the signal current appears on the earth conductor. This is particularly undesirable for integrated circuits because the earth connections of the ICs exhibit such resistances that the reference potential remains no longer constant in the case of a current flowing into the earth conductors. This gives rise to interference with other circuits on the same IC, i.e. output signals of the amplifier arrangement are cross-coupled to other circuit elements on the same IC via the reference potential.